Asheville council to vote on $1.14 million police tech funding

Asheville City Council was set to decide whether to accept $1,141,256 in federal money for a Real-Time Intelligence Center that would give police faster access to camera feeds, license-plate readers, body-camera video and other data on one screen. If approved, the money would go into a special revenue fund for the Asheville Police Department and let the city finish the federal onboarding process, but it would not put the system online immediately.

The award came through Community Project Funding secured by U.S. Rep. Chuck Edwards and administered by the U.S. Department of Justice. Edwards described the RTIC as a centralized technology command center and said it was one of five projects he secured in Asheville and Western North Carolina for fiscal 2026. The city said it was notified in February 2026 that the request had been resubmitted and included in the FY2026 appropriations bill.

Asheville is not starting from scratch. City Council approved an interlocal agreement with the Buncombe County Sheriff’s Office on Jan. 24, 2023, by a 4-1 vote, giving APD access to the county-operated FUSUS camera network for an annual fee of $30,000. Buncombe County said at the time that the system had about 1,780 cameras, with roughly 1,500 on Buncombe County Schools property, most of the rest on county-owned property and fewer than 20 on downtown business exteriors. County officials said footage was stored for 72 hours and then deleted automatically, and that no facial recognition software would be used.

The new proposal would let APD run its own system independently and cover software costs for several years, along with workstations and video displays for analysts. Police say residents and businesses would participate voluntarily, and property owners would keep control of any footage they shared. Supporters argue the technology helps officers avoid sending people into dangerous situations blind and can speed investigations and emergency response.

The privacy debate around RTIC spending has already reached the council chamber. On March 26, 2025, Asheville City Council approved about $325,000 in police spending after a public discussion over transparency and privacy, and a related $71,999 RTIC grant passed 6-1 with Councilmember Kim Roney voting no. Roney said she had submitted 29 questions to police before that vote. Police backers have pointed to a 2025 shooting case in which WLOS reported that license-plate-reader technology helped detectives quickly locate a suspect vehicle and recover a gun. The city’s Public Safety Committee advanced the current RTIC funding resolution on March 26, 2026, in a 2-0 vote, sending the question back to council as Asheville weighs whether the gains in speed and coordination are worth a deeper investment in surveillance-style public safety tools.